How to distinguish coffee Lavazza from a fake
Unfair competition and fake goods have existed at all times. Especially such trends intensified and developed in times of crisis, when the buyer, due to various circumstances, lost revenue and could not afford to buy products in the same volume. Excess of goods on the market led to the fact that many businessmen went bankrupt. Something similar is happening now in our market.
Due to certain problems in the economy, people cannot afford the goods they love, which have become expensive for them. But getting used to them, they cannot refuse them.
Therefore, they are happy to respond to offers to buy their favorite product at a discount of 40-50% of its real value, without asking the question — where is such cheapness from? Especially when it comes to a product like coffee. As a result — people pay a lot of money anyway — but they get a fake, which in some cases is very dangerous for their health.
This article will focus on the fake coffee LAVAZZA. The reasons why this coffee is actively faked is very simple: brand awareness; recognizability; high quality; economic attractiveness — an opportunity to earn.
These aspects attract unscrupulous businessmen to both produce fakes and distribute them — causing buyers to distrust this product. In fact, such businessmen are simply destroying the brand in the market.
We have analyzed all the information accumulated on the market about LAVAZZA coffee crafts and want to introduce you to protect you from loss of finances, bad mood and maintain your health.
Fake coffee beans
Oddly enough, but the grain is very actively faked, and the most modern technologies and tricks are applied. In some cases, forged grains, according to certain technologies, are extremely dangerous for your health. The easiest way is to replace the grain. High-quality grain in a specific proportion is mixed with low-grade or grain waste.
Arabica can simply be replaced with the lowest quality robusta. An experienced LAVAZZA lover will notice the change right away, but an ordinary consumer will simply decide not to buy coffee anymore, because instead of a floral aftertaste he gets a earthy aftertaste and strong bitterness.
Grains can also be faked in other ways. For example, starch, ordinary flour, a little water and a little dye based on caramel sugar (highly concentrated sugar) are taken in certain proportions. Flavor is added. It turns out the dough.
Grains are molded from it and grooves are made like a real one. Then, when large volumes of such grains are molded, they, like ordinary grains, are fried and a completely natural grain is obtained. Then they are mixed with natural grains of 30% and fake 70%. The mixture is ready.
How to check the mixture. Grains must be thrown into cold water. Natural coffee will not sink in water. A fake will drown and paint over water.
Ground coffee counterfeit
Ground coffee is faked even easier than in beans. The fact is that it is difficult to determine what is in ground coffee, what type of coffee is there, and in what proportion, without chemical expertise. According to the statistics of such coffee, substandard grains, chestnuts, acorns, barley, millet, chicory are added. In 50% of cases, an ordinary person will not notice a fake. The analysis also happens — the coffee falls into the water. Fake coffee will give a small color of water — it will be either a dye or chicory. Natural will simply precipitate.
Packaging
Remember that it is the most cost-effective to fake LAVAZZA coffee with just 1 kg of the most famous and best-selling Lavazza Qualita Oro, Lavazza Qualita Rossa, Lavazza Crema e Gusto, etc.
You can identify fake LAVAZZA coffee by carefully looking at the packaging. What should be striking first is the form of the packaging itself. LAVAZZA coffee is produced on modern expensive equipment, colors, labels and the entire packaging design goes through a preliminary long and painstaking process. Many specialists are involved in its creation, from artists and psychologists to marketers.
A pack should attract attention, but not be catchy and evoke positive emotions from the buyer. Therefore, the pack can not be dented, it has a strict shape. The colors of the packaging cannot be either very faded or very bright. The inscriptions are all clear and tone.
If you take a real package of LAVAZZA coffee beans or ground coffee, you will immediately feel the density of the package and contents, the beans do not create cod or spatial movement inside the package.
Everything is tightly sealed. On the side of the original pack there is no bend, since the pack is formed before packaging. Fake bundles, before packaging, lie in warehouses and form a natural lateral bend under the weight of other empty packages.
Many experts pay attention to how the packaging is sealed. Soldering from above was done by creating three soft waves with a large gap to the edge. In a fake wave will be visible right down to the edge. Bottom of the packaging in the original LAVAZZA it will also have the form of waves, in a fake — almost flat with barely noticeable elements of the waves. However, we draw your attention to which valve is installed on the pack — the «old» or «new» sample, as this entails differences in the soldering of the edges.
With the «old» valve — one slot
With the “new” valve — two slots
An additional element that can open the fake is the valve on the LAVAZZA pack, it is always neat, barely noticeable, without very concave edges. The thing again is that LAVAZZA produces packaging on expensive and high-tech equipment, which is a fully automatic process with computer control.
Therefore, all the features of the packaging are accurately calculated and they are always the same, clearly noticeable packaging defects are not possible on such equipment. The original LAVAZZA valve is always equipped with one “old valve” or two “new valves” with neat slots and an inscription that you will always see when you look closely — Luigi Goglio Milano. On a fake, you can often find just one or two holes, the edges of the valve will be transmitted, very convex.
«New and old» valves
Also on the side of each pack of LAVAZZA under the barcode of the country of manufacture is information on the date and time of packaging. On the original bundle, you will always find different packaging times. The fake always indicates the same time on each pack.
If you purchased coffee, the first thing you pay attention to when opening the package is the smell. If the coffee is fake, then it will be aromatic atypical shades of coffee, possibly with a touch of roasted seeds or an earthy smell. Grains will also vary in size and color. For high-quality coffee, the roast is always uniform brown (depending on the variety), for a fake — up to black or the presence of grains of different roasts.
At the moment, LAVAZZA, given the scale of counterfeiting coffee, has partially redesigned coffee such as Oro, Rossa, Crema e Aroma, Dek and Caffe Espresso. You can familiarize yourself with the new design on the official website of the company.
And the last thing we would like to say. Considering the superprofits that negligent businessmen get when they fake LAVAZZA coffee, you need to be aware that they can easily use the available financial resources to optimize the production base and minimize these signs of a fake product that we told you about.
Thus, it is absolutely possible that already at the moment the fake can hardly be distinguished from the original. In this case, we recommend that you purchase the product only in trusted stores, retail chains or from partners of an official importer.
We hope that all the signs given in our article will help you recognize the fake and you will get only a quality product from LAVAZZA.
